The brother of NBC reporter Eliana Moreno, grieving her death, has condemned scammers he says are attempting to profit from the tragedy by setting up unauthorized fundraisers.
Johan Moreno, of Brooklyn, issued the forceful warning in a post on X Wednesday night, a day after Eliana was among three people killed when an NBC helicopter crashed in Los Angeles.
“At this time, our family and her fiancé are not collecting monetary donations,” he wrote. “Any online donation pages are not endorsed by our family. Thank you for your well wishes and understanding.”
Johan, a writer, also shared a throwback photograph of his sister working inside NewsChopper 4, the Eurocopter AS350 that went down in Chatsworth on Tuesday.
“RIP sis, I will love you to the end of time,” he wrote. “My family and I just went through the worst day of our lives. We appreciate all the support and love.”
Tributes have continued to pour in for Moreno, 38, after authorities confirmed she was aboard the helicopter while covering a deadly bus collision in Chatsworth.
Mourners have placed flowers at a makeshift memorial at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, where NewsChopper 4 would regularly take off.
“She was just so wildly good at what she did,” LA aerial photographer Jake Asner, who created the memorial, told the Los Angeles Daily News.
“She had the scanners on, she was talking to … assignment desks … and controlling the camera. … She did it like it was a piece of cake.”
Asner said the airport was an appropriate site for the memorial because it was a place “she loved.”
Jonathan Gonzalez, an NBC Los Angeles reporter, described Moreno as “damn good” at her job and “one of a kind,” according to NBC News.
Moreno and the helicopter’s pilot, George Marciniw, were killed while covering the bus collision. Edy Gutierrez Mejia, a 29-year-old Guatemalan national, also died on the ground.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and the National Transportation Safety Board expects to issue a preliminary report within 30 days.
Investigators are expected to seek surveillance footage from nearby buildings and examine the helicopter’s logbooks as part of the probe.
The helicopter’s charred wreckage is also being examined before it is moved to a secure facility for additional investigation.
The final report could take as long as 18 months to be published, but Fabian Salazar, the NTSB investigator-in-charge, said the livestream video documenting the copter’s final moments is “probably the most important evidence.”
The video shows the camera zooming out before several alarms sound as the helicopter begins its descent.
Then Moreno was heard asking, “You can’t pull up?”
The video then cuts out – which appears to be the moment the helicopter crashes.
